Despite a protracted development, it became one of the Luftwaffe's most important aircraft. The assembly line ran constantly from 1936 to 1945 and more than 16,000 Ju 88s were built in dozens of variants, more than any other twin-engine German aircraft of the period. Throughout production the basic structure of the aircraft remained unchanged.[3][4]

In August 1935, the German Ministry of Aviation submitted its requirements for an unarmed, three-seat, high-speed bomber with a payload of 800–1,000 kg (1,760–2,200 lb).[5] Design of the Ju-88 began with a study EF59 which evolved into two parallel designs, Ju-85 and Ju-88.[6] The Ju 85 was a twin-engined bomber aircraft prototype, designed by Junkers in 1935. The Ministry of Aviation requested the aircraft, which differed from the Ju 88 due to the use of a twin fin tail unit. The aircraft was never put into service.[7]

Design was initiated by Junkers Chief Designer Ernst Zindel.[8] He was assisted by Wilhelm Heinrich Evers and American engineer Alfred Gassner.[9] Evers and Gassner had worked together at Fokker Aircraft Corporation of America where Gassner had been Chief Engineer.[10] Junkers presented their initial design in June 1936, and were given clearance to build two prototypes (Werknummer 4941 and 4942).[5] The first two aircraft were to have a range of 2,000 km (1,240 mi) and were to be powered by two DB 600s. Three further aircraft, Werknummer 4943, 4944 and 4945, were to be powered by Jumo 211 engines.[5] The first two prototypes, Ju 88 V1 and V2, differed from the V3, V4 and V5 in that the latter three models were equipped with three defensive armament positions to the rear of the cockpit, and were able to carry two 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) bombs, one under each inner wing panel.

The aircraft's first flight was made by the prototype Ju 88 V1, which bore the civil registration D-AQEN, on 21 December 1936. When it first flew, it managed about 580 km/h (360 mph) and Hermann Göring, head of the Luftwaffe was ecstatic. It was an aircraft that could finally fulfill the promise of the Schnellbomber, a high-speed bomber. The streamlined fuselage was modeled after its contemporary, the Dornier Do 17, but with fewer defensive guns because the belief still held that it could outrun late 1930s-era fighters. The fifth prototype set a 1,000 km (620 mi) closed-circuit record in March 1939, carrying a 2,000 kg (4,410 lb) payload at a speed of 517 km/h (320 mph).[11]

The first five prototypes had conventionally operating dual-strut leg rearwards-retracting main gear, but starting with the V6 prototype, a main gear design debuted that twisted the new, single-leg main gear strut through 90° during the retraction sequence, much like that of the American Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighter. This feature allowed the main wheels to end up above the lower end of the strut when fully retracted [N 1] and was adopted as standard for all future production Ju 88s, and only minimally modified for the later Ju 188 and 388 developments of it. These single-leg landing gear struts also made use of stacks of conical Belleville washers inside them as their main form of suspension for takeoffs and landings.

By 1938, radical modifications from the first prototype began to produce a "heavy" dive bomber. The wings were strengthened, dive brakes were added, the fuselage was extended and the number of crewmen was increased to four. Due to these advances, the Ju 88 was to enter the war as a medium bomber.

Annular radiator on a wrecked Ju 88

The choice of annular radiators for engine cooling on the Ju 88, which placed these radiators immediately forward of each engine and directly behind each propeller, allowed the cooling lines for the engine coolant and oil-cooling radiators (integrated within the annular design) to be as short as possible, with integral port and starboard air intakes for cooling the exhaust headers, the starboard inlet also supplying the inlet air for the supercharger.

Ju 88 assembly line, 1941

As the outbreak of WW II in Europe approached, by the time Luftwaffe planners like Ernst Udet had their opportunities to have their own "pet" features added (including dive-bombing by Udet), the Ju 88's top speed had dropped to around 450 km/h (280 mph). The Ju 88 V7 was fitted with cable-cutting equipment to combat the potential threat of British barrage balloons, and was successfully tested in this role. The V7 then had the Ju 88 A-1 "beetle's eye" faceted nose glazing installed, complete with the Bola undernose ventral defensive machine gun emplacement, and was put through a series of dive-bombing tests with 250 kg (550 lb) and 500 kg (1,100 lb) bombs, and in early 1940, with 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) bombs. The Ju 88 V8 (Stammkennzeichen of DG+BF, Wrk Nr 4948) flew on October 3, 1938. The A-0 series was developed through the V9 and V10 prototypes. The A-1 series prototypes were Wrk Nrs 0003, 0004 and 0005. The A-1s were given the Jumo 211B-1 or G powerplants.[13]

Dr. Heinrich Koppenberg (managing director of Jumo) assured Göring in the autumn of 1938 that 300 Ju 88s per month was definitely possible. Göring was in favour of the A-1 variant for mass production.

Production was delayed drastically by developmental problems. Although planned for a service introduction in 1938, the Ju 88 finally entered squadron service (with only 12 aircraft) on the first day of the invasion of Poland in 1939. Production was painfully slow, with only one Ju 88 manufactured per week, as problems continually kept cropping up. The Ju 88C series of heavy fighter was also designed very early in 1940, but kept secret from Göring, as he only wanted bombers.

In October 1937 GeneralluftzeugmeisterErnst Udet had ordered the development of the Ju 88 as a heavy dive bomber. This decision was influenced by the success of the Ju 87Stuka in this role. The Junkers development center at Dessau gave priority to the study of pull-out systems and dive brakes.[14]
The first prototype to be tested as a dive bomber was the Ju 88 V4 followed by the V5 and V6. These models became the planned prototype for the A-1 series. The V5 made its maiden flight on 13 April 1938, and the V6 on 28 June 1938. Both the V5 and V6 were fitted with four-blade propellers, an extra bomb bay and a central "control system".[14]
As a dive bomber, the Ju 88 was capable of pinpoint deliveries of heavy loads; however, despite all the modifications, dive bombing still proved too stressful for the airframe, and in 1943, tactics were changed so that bombs were delivered from a shallower, 45° diving angle. Aircraft and bomb sights were accordingly modified and dive brakes were removed. With an advanced Stuvi dive-bombsight, accuracy remained very good for its time. Maximum bomb load of the A-4 was 3,000 kg (6,600 lb), but in practice, standard bomb load was 1,500–2,000 kg (3,310–4,410 lb).[15] Junkers later used the A-4 airframe for the A-17 torpedo carrier. However, the variant lacked the undernose Bolagondola for a ventral gun position.[14]

The Ju 88C series of standard fighter-bomber versions from the C-2 onwards culminated in the Ju 88 C-6, applying experience acquired with the A-4 bomber, equipped with the same Jumo 211J engines but replacing the "beetle's eye" nose glazing with a smoothly curved all-metal nose, pierced only by the barrels of its forward-firing offensive armament. The C-6 was used mostly as fighter-bomber and therefore assigned to bomber units. As a reaction to the increasing number of attacks on German shipping, especially on U-boats in the Bay of Biscay, from July 1942 it started flying anti-shipping patrols and escort missions from bases in France.[16]V./Kampfgeschwader 40 being formed to operate the C-6.

The aircraft of V./KG 40 (which was redesignated I./Zerstörergeschwader 1 in 1943[17]) were a significant threat to the antisubmarine aircraft and operated as escort fighters for the more vulnerable Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor maritime patrol bombers. Between July 1942 and July 1944, the Ju 88s of KG 40 and ZG 1 were credited with 109 confirmed air-to-air victories,[18] at a cost of 117 losses.[19] They were finally deployed against the Allied Invasion of Normandy in June 1944, incurring heavy losses for little effect before being disbanded on 5 August 1944.[20]

The Ju 88P was a specialized variant for ground attack and to function as a bomber destroyer, designed starting from 1942[21] and produced in small numbers, using examples of the Bordkanone heavy calibre aviation autocannon series, which required the omission of the Bola undernose gondola for clearance. The prototype, derived from a standard Ju 88 A-4, was armed with a 7.5 cm anti-tank gun derived from the 7.5 cm PaK 40 installed in a large conformal gun pod under the fuselage. This was followed by a small batch of Ju 88 P-1, which standardized the solid sheet metal nose of the C version for all known examples of the P-series, and used the new 7.5 cm PaK 40L semi-automatic gun, also known as the BordkanoneBK 7,5,[22] which was also meant for use in both the later Henschel Hs 129B-3 dedicated anti-armor aircraft, and a never-achieved production version of the He 177A-3/R5 ground-attack Flak-suppression Stalingradtyp field-improvised version. The Ju 88P-1 was produced in some 40 units, but with the massive cannon installation resulting in a slow and vulnerable aircraft,[21] it was soon replaced by the Ju 88 P-2, featuring two Bordkanone 3.7 cm BK 3,7 guns, whose higher muzzle velocity proved useful against the Russian tanks in the Eastern Front. This aircraft was used by Erprobungskommando 25. The Ju 88 P-3 also used the twin BK 3,7 guns, and added further armor for the crew, and was delivered at one Staffel of the Nachtschlachtgruppen 1, 2, 4, 8 and 9 for night attacks in the Eastern Front, in northern Norway (NSGr 8) and Italy (NSGr 9).[21] Finally, the Ju 88 P-4 mounted a smaller-volume ventral gun pod housing a 5 cm auto-loading BordkanoneBK 5 cannon (the same ordnance used for the field-improvised handful of Stalingradtyp He 177As created) and, in some cases, 6.5 cm solid propellant rockets.[21]

The Ju 88C was originally intended as a fighter-bomber and heavy fighter by adding fixed, forward-firing guns to the nose while retaining some bomb carrying ability of the A-series bomber. The C-series had a solid metal nose, typically housing one 20 mm MG FF cannon and three 7.92 mm (.312 in) MG 17 machine guns. The aircraft retained the ventral Bola gondola under the crew compartment though individual units sometimes removed this to reduce weight and drag to enhance performance. The Ju-88C was later used as a night fighter, and this became its main role.

The first version of the Ju 88C was the C-1 with 20 aircraft converted from A-1 airframes. Some of them entered service in the Zerstörerstaffel of KG 30 which became part of II./NJG 1 in July 1940. The C-1 was followed by the C-2 of which 20 aircraft were converted from A-5 airframes with enlarged wingspan. The C-4 became the first production version with 60 produced and 60 converted from A-5 airframes. The C-6, of which 900 aircraft were produced, was based on the A-4 airframe with more powerful engines and stronger defensive armament (single- or dual-mount belt-fed 7.92 mm MG 81 or 13 mm MG 131 instead of drum-fed MG 15 machine guns).

The C-6 as night fighter was typically equipped with FuG 202 Lichtenstein BC low-UHF band airborne intercept radar, using the complex 32-dipole Matratze antennas. The first four C-6 night fighters were tested in early 1942 by NJG 2. The trials were successful and the aircraft was ordered into production. In October 1943, many C-6s were upgraded with new radar systems. The first new radar equipment was the FuG 212 Lichtenstein C-1. After the UHF-band Lichtenstein radars had been compromised to the Allies in the late spring of 1943, the next development in German AI radar was the VHF-band FuG 220 Lichtenstein SN-2, discarding the 32-dipole Matratze antennae for the much larger eight-dipole Hirschgeweih (stag's antlers) aerials, required for the longer wavelength SN-2 system.

Many Ju-88C's had their Bola gondolas modified to hold up to two forward firing 20 mm cannons. Several C-6 night fighters were equipped with two "Schräge-Musik" upward-firing 20mm cannons in trial fittings, and from mid 1943 onward, there was an official field modification kit available for this arrangement.

A small number of the C-series day fighters had their new solid-metal noses specially painted to resemble the bomber A-series' "beetle's eye" faceted clear view nose glazing, in an attempt to deceive Allied pilots into thinking the fighters were actually bombers; the unusual "camouflage" attempt did result initially in a number of Allied aerial losses.[23]

One of the first aircraft from the R-1 series that went into service (Werknummer 360 043) was involved in one of the most significant defections from the Luftwaffe. On 9 May 1943, this night fighter (D5+EV), which was stationed with 10./NJG 3 in Aalborg Denmark, flew to the RAF Station at Dyce (now Aberdeen Airport) with its entire crew and complete electronic equipment on board. The fact that Spitfire Vb fighters No.165 (Ceylon) Squadron escorted it towards the end of its flight could indicate that its arrival had been expected. It was immediately transferred to Farnborough Airfield, received RAF markings and serial number PJ876, and was tested in great detail.[24] The preserved aircraft is on exhibit at the RAF Museum, as one of the first two intact Ju 88s in aviation museums. The Luftwaffe only learned of this defection the following month when members of the crew, pilot Oberleutnant Heinrich Schmitt (son of the former secretary to the ministry for foreign affairs (1923-1929) Gustav Stresemann) and Oberfeldwebel Paul Rosenberger made broadcasts on British radio.[25][N 2] The third crew-member, Erich Kantwill, refused to co-operate with the British and was treated as a normal prisoner-of-war.

All previous night fighter versions of the Ju 88 used a modified A-series fuselage. The G-series fuselage was purpose-built for the special needs of a night fighter, with the A-series' Bola ventral under-nose defensive gun position omitted for lower aerodynamic drag and less weight, and adding the enlarged squared-off vertical fin/rudder tail unit of the Ju 188. G-1 aircraft possessed more powerful armament and like the earlier R-1, used a pair of 1,700 PS BMW 801 radial engines, the G-1 using the later BMW 801G-2 version. Electronic equipment consisted of the then-standard FuG 220 Lichtenstein SN-2 90 MHz VHF radar using eight-dipole Hirschgeweih antennas, which could include fitment of the borderline-SHF-bandFuG 350Naxos radar detector with its receiving antenna housed in a teardrop-shaped streamlined fairing above the canopy, or FuG 227 Flensburg radar detector homing devices that had their own trio of twin-dipole antennae: one on each wing leading edge and one under the tail. One Ju 88G-1 of 7. Staffel/NJG 2 was flown by mistake to RAF Woodbridge in July 1944, giving the Royal Air Force its first chance to check out the VHF-band Lichtenstein SN-2 radar and Flensburg radar detector gear.[26]

G-6 versions were equipped with 1,750 PS Jumo 213A inline-V12 engines (using the same redesigned annular radiator cores as the Ju 188s powered by them), enlarged fuel tanks and often one or two 20 mm MG 151/20 cannons in a Schräge Musik ("Jazz Music", i.e. slanted) installation. These guns were pointed obliquely upwards and forwards from the upper fuselage – usually at an angle of 70°.

Some of the final G-series models received updates to the engines, using a pair of high-altitude Jumo 213E inverted V-12s with the same revised annular radiator design as the 213As already used, or to the radar, using the mid-VHF band FuG 218 Neptun AI radar with either the standardized Hirschgeweih aerials with shorter dipoles to suit the higher frequencies used, or more rarely the advanced Morgenstern 90° crossed-element, six-dipole Yagi-form antenna. Only a very few Ju 88G-6 night fighters were ever fitted with the semi-experimental FuG 240 Berlin N-1 cavity magnetron based, 3 GHz-band (centimetric) radar, whose dish antenna was housed in a smoothly contoured radome on the G-6's nose. Only about 15 of the Berlin systems were completed before V-E Day.

Only 12 Ju 88s saw action during the invasion of Poland. The unit Erprobungskommando 88 (Ekdo 88) was responsible for testing new bomber designs and their crews under hostile conditions. They selected 12 aircraft and their crews and attached them to 1./Kampfgeschwader 25.[27] As a result of its small operational numbers, the type made no impact.

The Luftwaffe's order of battle for the French campaign reveals all but one of the Luftwaffe's Fliegerkorps (I. Fliegerkorps) contained Ju 88s in the combat role.
The mixed bomber units, including the Ju 88, of Kampfgeschwader 51 (under the command of Luftflotte 3) helped claim between 233 and 248 Allied aircraft on the ground between 10–13 May 1940.[30]
The Ju 88 was particularly effective at dive-bombing. Between 13–24 May, I. and II./KG 54 flew 174 attack against rail systems, paralysing French logistics and mobility.[31]
On 17 June 1940, Junkers Ju 88s (mainly from Kampfgeschwader 30) destroyed a "10,000 tonne ship", the 16,243 grt ocean linerRMS Lancastria, off Saint-Nazaire, killing some 5,800 Allied personnel.[32]
Some 133 Ju 88s were pressed into the Blitzkrieg, but very high combat losses and accidents forced a quick withdrawal from action to re-train crews to fly this very high-performance aircraft. Some crews were reported to be more scared of the Ju 88 than the enemy, and requested a transfer to an He 111 unit.[33] By this time, major performance deficiencies in the A-1 led to an all-out effort in a major design rework. The outcome was a longer, 20.08 m (65 ft ​101⁄2 in) wingspan, from extended rounded wing tips that had already been standardised on the A-4 version, that was deemed needed for all A-1s; thus the A-5 was born. Surviving A-1s were modified as quickly as possible, with new wings to A-5 specifications.

By August 1940, A-1s and A-5s were reaching operational units just as the battle was intensifying.

The Battle of Britain proved very costly. Its higher speed did not prevent Ju 88 losses exceeding those of its Dornier Do 17 and Heinkel He 111 stablemates despite being deployed in smaller numbers than either. Ju 88 losses over Britain in 1940 totaled 303 aircraft between July and October 1940.[34]
Do 17 and He 111 losses for the same period were 132 and 252 machines destroyed respectively.[35][36]

Of all the losses suffered by the Ju 88 at that time, however, a number were due to the tricky behavior of the plane, especially when compared to the proven He 111, and to the crews' lack of experience on the type – many having converted to the Ju 88 only shortly before. Of the 39 losses recorded for July 1940, for example, only 20 were due to enemy action. The others being written off in training accidents, crashes, or malfunctions over the mainland Europe.[34] A series of field modifications were made to make the Ju 88 less vulnerable, including the replacement of the single MG 15 rear machine gun by a twin-barreled MG 81Z machine gun and the fitting of additional cockpit armour.

One incident involved ground fighting between the crew of an A-1 and soldiers from the London Irish Rifles during the Battle of Graveney Marsh on 27 September 1940. It was the last action between British and foreign military forces on British mainland soil.[37]

The flagship Ju 88 A-4 went into service during the closing days of the Battle of Britain. Although slower than the A-1, it solved nearly all of the troubles of the A-1. The A-4 actually saw additional improvements including more powerful engines but, unlike other aircraft in the Luftwaffe, did not see a model code change. The Ju 88 C-series also benefited from the A-4 changes.

By the summer of 1941, most of the units equipped with the Dornier Do 17 were upgrading to the Ju 88. With a few exceptions, most of the German bomber units were now flying the He 111 and Ju 88.
The Ju 88 was to prove a very capable and valuable asset to the Luftwaffe in the east. The Ju 88 units met with instant success, attacking enemy airfields and positions at low level and causing enormous losses for little damage in return.
3./Kampfgeschwader 3 attacked Pinsk airfield in the morning of the 22 June 1941. It caught, and claimed destroyed, 60 Soviet bombers on the ground. The 39 SBAP Regiment of the 10 Division SAD actually lost 43 Tupolev SBa and five Petlyakov Pe-2s. Ju 88s from Kampfgeschwader 51 destroyed over 100 aircraft after dispatching 80 Ju 88s to hit airfields. In general the Soviet aircraft were not dispersed and the Luftwaffe found them easy targets.[38]
A report from the Soviet 23rd Tank Division of the 12th Armoured Corps described a low-level attack by Ju 88s on 22 June, resulting in the loss of 40 tanks.
However, the Ju 88s were to suffer steady attritional losses. At 0415 on 22 June 1941, III./KG 51 attacked the airfield at Kurovitsa. Despite destroying 34 Polikarpov I-153s, the Ju 88s were intercepted by 66 ShAP I-153s. Six Ju 88s were shot down before the German fighter escort dealt with the threat.[39] By the end of the first day of the campaign, Ju 88 losses amounted to 23 destroyed.[40]

Due to the lack of sufficient numbers of Ju 87 Stukas, the Ju 88 was employed in the direct ground support role. This resulted in severe losses from ground fire. Kampfgeschwader 1, Kampfgeschwader 76 and Kampfgeschwader 77 reported the loss of 18 Ju 88s over enemy territory on 23 June. KG 76 and KG 77 reported the loss of a further four Ju 88s, of which 12 were 100% destroyed.[41]

In the north, the VVS North-Western Front lost 465 aircraft on the ground, 148 of them bombers, to the Ju 88s of KG 1. A further 33 were damaged. Out of a total of 1,720 aircraft deployed by the VVS Northern Front on 22 June,[42] it lost 890 and a further 187 suffered battle damage in eight days.[43] The Ju 88s units helped virtually destroy Soviet airpower in the northern sector.

Again, the Ju 88 demonstrated its dive-bombing capability. Along with He 111s from KG 55, Ju 88s from KG 51 and 54 destroyed some 220 trucks and 40 tanks on 1 July, which helped repulse the Soviet South Western Front's offensive. The Ju 88s destroyed most rail links during interdiction missions in the area, allowing Panzergruppe 1 to maintain the pace of its advance.[44]

Ju 88 units operating over the Baltic states during the battle for Estonia inflicted severe losses on Soviet shipping, with the same dive-bombing tactics used over Norway, France and Britain. KGr 806 sank the Soviet destroyer Karl Marx on 8 August 1941 in Loksa BayTallinn.[45] On 28 August the Ju 88s had more success when KG 77 and KGr 806 sank the 2,026 grt steamer Vironia, the 2,317 grt Lucerne, the 1,423 grt Atis Kronvalds and the ice breaker Krisjanis Valdemars (2,250 grt). The rest of the Soviet "fleet", were forced to change course. This took them through a heavily mined area. As a result, 21 Soviet warships, including five destroyers, struck mines and sank. On 29 August, the Ju 88s accounted for the transport ships Vtoraya Pyatiletka (3,974 grt), Kalpaks (2,190 grt) and Leningradsovet (1,270 grt) sunk. In addition, the ships Ivan Papanin, Saule, Kazakhstan and the Serp i Molot were damaged. Some 5,000 Soviet soldiers were lost.[46]

On 2 December 1943, 105 Ju 88 A-4s, armed with bombs and motobomba circling torpedoes, attacked the Allied-held port of Bari, Italy. The attacking force achieved complete surprise and sunk over 20 Allied ships in the overcrowded harbour, including the U.S. Liberty shipJohn Harvey, which was carrying mustard gas. About 1,000 people were killed and another 1,000 wounded; many fatalities and injuries were as a result of the release of mustard gas. The attacking force lost one aircraft; the Allies had not assigned any fighters to guard Bari as they thought the Luftwaffe incapable of striking in this strength at this stage of the war. The port was completely closed for three weeks from the damage of the raid, and only resumed full operation in February 1944.[47]

In April 1943, as Finland was fighting its Continuation War against the USSR, the Finnish Air Force bought 24 Ju 88s from Germany.[48] The aircraft were used to equip No. 44 Sqn, which had previously operated Bristol Blenheims, but these were instead transferred to No. 42 Sqn. Due to the complexity of the Ju 88, the Luftwaffe spent most of 1943 training crews on the aircraft, and conducted only a handful of bombing missions. The most notable was a raid on the Lehto partisan village on 20 August 1943 (in which the whole squadron participated), and a raid on the Lavansaari air field (leaving seven Ju 88 damaged from forced landing in inclement weather).[49] In the summer of 1943, the Finns noted stress damage on the wings. This had occurred when the aircraft were used in dive bombing. Restrictions followed: the dive brakes were removed and it was only allowed to dive at a 45-degree angle (compared to 60–80 degrees previously). In this way, they tried to spare the aircraft from unnecessary wear.

One of the more remarkable missions was a bombing raid on 9 March 1944 against Soviet Long Range Aviation bases near Leningrad, when the Finnish aircraft, including Ju 88s, followed Soviet bombers returning from a night raid on Tallinn, catching the Soviets unprepared and destroying many Soviet bombers and their fuel reserves, and a raid against the Aerosan base at Petsnajoki on 22 March 1944.[49] The whole bomber regiment took part in the defence against the Soviets during the fourth strategic offensive. All aircraft flew several missions per day, day and night, when the weather permitted.[50]

No. 44 Sqn was subordinated Lentoryhmä Sarko during the Lapland War (now against Germany), and the Ju 88s were used both for reconnaissance and bombing. The targets were mostly vehicle columns. Reconnaissance flights were also made over northern Norway. The last war mission was flown on 4 April 1945.[51]

After the wars, Finland was prohibited from using bomber aircraft with internal bomb stores. Consequently, the Finnish Ju 88s were used for training until 1948. The aircraft were then scrapped over the following years.[51] No Finnish Ju 88s have survived, but an engine is on display at the Central Finland Aviation Museum, and the frame structure of a German Ju 88 cockpit hood is preserved at the Finnish Aviation Museum in Vantaa.

This version actually predates the A-4. Earlier models of Ju 88 upgraded with longer wings and other equipment. Jumo 211B-1, G-1 or H-1 engines all rated at 1,200 hp for take-off.

Ju 88 A-6

Was equipped with a balloon cable fender. A counterweight was mounted in the rear fuselage. Extremely vulnerable to fighter interception, most reverted to the normal A-5 version, fender and counterweight removed.

Based on the A-4, it featured an enlarged wooden bomb bay, capable of holding 3 tons of bombs. Ventral gondola removed, only two defensive MGs. It was rejected as the bomb bay "bulge" caused too much drag and a thus a reduction in speed.[52]

Ju 88 A-16

Dual control trainer based on the A-14

Ju 88 A-17

Dedicated torpedo bomber, no ventral gondola. One PVC torpedo rack under each wing replaced the two bomb racks. A long housing on the starboard side of the nose contained the torpedo aiming mechanisms. Crew of three.

Anti-tank and bomber destroyer variant with single Bordkanone series 75 mm (2.95 in), 50 mm (1.97 in), or twin 37 mm (1.46 in) calibre cannon in conformal ventral fuselage gun pod mount, which mandated removal of the Bola gondola under the cockpit section, conversion of A-series bomber. Produced in small series only, they were perceived as a failure for both anti-tank[55] and anti-bomber use.

Ju 88 P-1

Heavy-gun variant fitted with single 75 mm (2.95 in) BordkanoneBK 7,5 cannon in ventral gun pod. Appeared in mid-1942 in small numbers.[56][57]

High-speed bomber series based on Ju 88 A-4 but with ventral Bola gondola omitted, smoothly glazed nose with radial-ribbed supports instead of the "beetle's eye" of the A-version, and GM-1 nitrous-oxide boost, fastest of all variants.

Only two complete aircraft exist. They were both flown into British hands by defecting crews during the war.

Junkers Ju 88 D-1 trop, "Baksheesh", USAF Museum (2007)

Ju 88 D-1/Trop, Werk Nr. 430650

This is a long-range, photographic reconnaissance aircraft that was in the service of the Royal Romanian Air Force. On 22 July 1943, it was flown to Cyprus by a Romanian pilot who wanted to defect to the British forces on the island. Four Hurricanes from No. 127 Squadron escorted it to the airfield at Tobruk.

Given the name Baksheesh, it was allocated the RAF serial number HK959 and test–flown in Egypt. However, by this point in the war, the RAF had already acquired three Ju-88s in flying condition[N 3] and "Baksheesh" was handed over to the U.S. Army Air Force, who flew it across the South Atlantic to Wright Field.

In the US, it was registered as FE-1598 and used for examination and test flying from 1943 to 1944. In 1946 the aircraft was placed in storage at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona. It was shipped to the US Air Force Museum on 6 January 1960. It was previously painted in spurious Luftwaffe markings, appropriately of a German WW II Aufklärungsgruppe (reconnaissance group) while on unrestored, outdoor display; however it is presently finished in its original-style Romanian military insignia and is on protected indoor display in the World War II Gallery at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.[59]

Ju 88 R-1, Werk Nr. 360043, RAF Museum (2007)

Ju 88 R-1, Werk Nr. 360043

This aircraft is thought to have been built in mid–1942 as a model A bomber, before being converted to a model R–1 fighter in early 1943. It was flown to Scotland by its defecting crew in May 1943; two of the three crew on board (who may have been British agents)[60] had taken the decision to defect after being ordered to shoot down a civilian BOAC Mosquito courier flight from Sweden to the UK.[61]

The aircraft took off from Aalborg, Denmark on 9 May, landing at Kristiansand, Norway for refuelling, it then took off again, supposedly for a mission over the Skagerrak. The defecting crew instead flew west to Scotland while holding the third crewmember at gunpoint. The aircraft was detected by British radar as it approached the Scottish coast and two Spitfires from 165 Squadron were scrambled. They intercepted 360043 one mile inland, whereupon the Ju 88 lowered its undercarriage, dipped its wings and dropped flares, signalling the crew's intent to surrender. The Spitfires escorted 360043 to RAF Dyce, where it received slight damage from the airfield's anti-aircraft guns while attempting to land. The Spitfire pilots (an American and a Canadian) were mentioned in dispatches for taking the risk not to open fire on the Ju 88 upon interception.

The surrender of this aircraft was of great intelligence value at the time, as it was fitted with the latest UHF-band FuG 202 Liechtenstein BC A.I radar, for which a new form of the Window radar interference method, set up for UHF-band airborne radar jamming, was developed soon afterwards. The Ju 88R-1 was operated by the RAF's No. 1426 (Enemy Aircraft) Flight and evaluated in depth by various British groups, including the Royal Aircraft Establishment and the Fighter Interception Unit. It was used to assist in teaching enemy aircraft recognition skills prior to the D-Day landings, and was last flown in May 1945. In September 1954 and again in September 1955, it was displayed on Horseguards Parade for Battle of Britain week. The aircraft was restored in 1975 and fitted with a replica of its characteristic Matratze 32-dipole radar antenna array, as all its radar equipment had been removed during the war. In August 1978, it was moved to the RAF Museum, its present home.[60]

Several reasonably intact aircraft have been recovered from underwater and remote land crash sites in recent years; some of these aircraft are under restoration for static display. Notable examples include:

This aircraft is the subject of a long term restoration project at the Norwegian Armed Forces Aircraft Collection at Gardermoen, near Oslo, Norway. It first flew in January 1940 and served with 2.Staffel/Kampfgeschwader 30, under the call sign U4+TK (with the two-character Geschwaderkennung designation of "U4" not recorded as ever having been used by KG 30 - that wing usually used the 4D wing code) during Operation Weserübung, the German invasion of Norway. In April 1940, it was operating from the frozen surface of the Jonsvatnet, a lake near Trondheim in Norway. The lake was being used as an improvised airfield by the Germans, who were conducting operations against Allied naval ships and against the towns of Namsos and Narvik[62] Towards the end of April, warmer weather made the frozen lake surface unusable for flying operations and a number of aircraft were abandoned on the ice, sinking into the lake when it melted completely.[62] The Ju 88 was recovered in late 2003, in an operation that also saw the recovery of a Heinkel 111 (Werk Nr. 2320) and the tail section of a second Ju 88.[63]

Ju 88 A-4, Werk Nr.0881478 4D+AM (ex-Stammkennzeichen of BH+QQ)

This aircraft, formerly of 4.Staffel/Kampfgeschwader 30 is displayed at the Norsk Luftfartsmuseum, the Norwegian Aviation Museum at Bodø Airport. On the 13 of April 1942, it was returning from an attack on Soviet ships when it ran out of fuel. The crew bailed out in the vicinity of Snefjord but the aircraft continued its flight and, remarkably, was left comparatively intact after crash-landing on a hillside at Garddevarre in Finnmark in the far north of Norway. It remained there until recovered by the Norsk Luftfartsmuseum in 1988.[64]

Ju 88 A-5, Werk Nr. 0886146 with Stammkennzeichen of CV+VP

This aircraft is held at the Deutsches Technikmuseum near Berlin.[60] It was delivered to the Luftwaffe in June 1940 and assigned to the bomber unit Kampfgeschwader 54, who flew it in the Battle of Britain and during the German invasion of the Soviet Union.[65]

By June 1942, it was serving with a training unit, Kampffliegerschule 3 based on the German Baltic coast.[66] On the night of the 29 June, it was stolen by two German personnel who intended to fly to Britain and defect to the Allied side. The attempt failed and the aircraft came down in Kilsfjord, a fjord near Kragerø, Norway.[67] One man drowned but the other, Willi Voss, was rescued by Norwegian civilians. However, he was subsequently captured, returned to Germany and executed in January 1943, even though some accounts claim Voss was forced by the other man to fly at gunpoint.[66] The aircraft was recovered in August 2000.[67] Restoration work was carried out in Norway between 2000 and 2004; it was moved to Germany in August 2006.[68]

1.
Dive bomber
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A dive bomber is a bomber aircraft that dives directly at its targets in order to provide greater accuracy for the bomb it drops. Diving towards the target simplifies the bombs trajectory and allows the pilot to keep visual contact throughout the bomb run and this allows attacks on point targets and ships, which were difficult to attack with conventional level bombers, even en-masse. A dive bomber dives at an angle, normally between 45 and 90 degrees, and thus requires an abrupt pull-up after dropping its bombs. This puts great strains on both pilot and aircraft and it demands an aircraft of strong construction, with some means to slow its dive. This limited the class to light bomber designs with ordnance loads in the range of 1,000 lb although there were larger examples. The SBD Dauntless helped win the Battle of Midway, was instrumental in the victory at the Battle of the Coral Sea, a second and simpler technique is to bomb from a shallow dive angle, sometimes referred to as glide bombing. This reduces the accuracy, but still allows line of sight to the target during the bomb run, the Junkers Ju 88 and Petlyakov Pe-2 were widely used in this role. The Heinkel He 177 is often mentioned as having its development upset by the demand that it be able to dive bomb, the phrase glide bombing should not be confused with the term glide bomb, where the bomb glides towards its target while the aircraft remains in level flight. Attachments for this type of bombing were fitted to the Norden bombsight, Dive bombing was most widely used before and during World War II, its use declined during the war, when its vulnerability to enemy fighters became apparent. Most tactical aircraft today allow bombing in shallow dives to keep the target visible, when released from an aircraft, a bomb carries with it the aircrafts velocity. In the case of a bomber flying horizontally, the bomb will only be travelling forward. This forward motion is opposed by the drag of the air, additionally, gravity accelerates the bomb downward. The combination of two forces, drag and gravity, results in a complex pseudo-parabolic trajectory. The distance that the bomb moves forward while it falls is known as its range, if the range for a given set of conditions is calculated, simple trigonometry can be used to find the angle between the aircraft and the target. By setting the bombsight to this angle, the aircraft can time the drop of its bombs at the instant when the target is lined up in the sight. This was only effective for area bombing, however, since the path of the bomb is only roughly estimated. Large formations could drop bombs on an area hoping to hit a target, but there was no guarantee of success. The advantage to this approach, however, was that it is easy to build such an aircraft and fly it at high altitude, the horizontal bomber was thus ill-suited for tactical bombing, particularly in close support

2.
Night fighter
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A night fighter is a fighter aircraft adapted for use at night or in other times of bad visibility. Night fighters began to be used in World War I and included types that were modified to operate at night. Many WW II night fighters also included instrument landing systems for landing at night as turning on the runway lights made runways into a target for opposing intruders. The use of the night fighter gradually faded away as a result of these improvements making the vast majority of fighters capable of night operation. At the start of World War I, most combatants had little capability of flying at night, the only targets that could be attacked with any possibility of being hit in limited visibility would be cities, an unthinkable target at the time. The general assumption of a war meant there was no need for strategic attacks. Things changed on 22 September and 8 October 1914, when the Royal Naval Air Service bombed the production line and hangars of the Zeppelin facilities in Cologne, although defences had been set up, all of them proved woefully inadequate. As early as 1915, a number of B. E. 2c aircraft were modified into the first night fighters and this technique would prove to be very effective. After over a year of night Zeppelin raids, on the night of 2–3 September 1916, a B. E. 2c flown by Captain William Leefe Robinson downed the SL11, the first German airship to be shot down over Britain. This action won the pilot a Victoria Cross and cash prizes totaling £3,500 put up by a number of individuals, because of airships limitations, the Luftstreitkräfte began to introduce long-range heavy bombers, starting with the Gotha G. IV aircraft that gradually took over the offensive. To counter night attacks, Sopwith Camel day fighters were deployed in the fighter role. Further modification led to the cockpit being moved rearwards, the modified aircraft were nicknamed the Sopwith Comic. With little money to spend on development, especially during the great depression and they flew fast enough that the time between detecting them and the bombers reaching their targets left little time to launch interceptors to shoot them down. At night, or with limited visibility, these problems were compounded, the Spanish Republican Air Force used some Polikarpov I-15 as night fighters. Pilot José Falcó had equipped his fighter with a receiver for land-based guidance for interception. One of the I-15s configured for night operations, fitted with tracer and explosive.30 rounds, nevertheless, there were some new technologies that appeared to offer potential ways to improve night fighting capability. During the 1930s there was development of infrared detectors among all of the major forces. The only such system to see any sort of operational use was the Spanner Anlage system used on the Dornier Do 17Z night fighters of the Luftwaffe

3.
Heavy fighter
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A heavy fighter is a fighter aircraft designed to carry heavier weapons or operate at longer ranges. To achieve acceptable performance, most heavy fighters were twin-engined, the twin-engine heavy fighter was a major design class during the pre-World War II period, conceived as long-range escort fighters or heavily armed bomber destroyers. Many twin-engined heavy fighters eventually found their niche as night fighters, a major heavy fighter design was the Messerschmitt Bf 110, a German fighter that, prior to the war, the Luftwaffe considered more important than their single-engine fighters. Many of the best pilots were assigned to Bf 110 wings and this doctrine proved to be a costly mistake. In practice the Bf 110 was capable of using this combination of features for only a short time, following the example set by the Bf 110, the Japanese built the broadly similar Kawasaki Ki-45 Toryu. Likewise neutral Netherlands built the twin-boom Fokker G. I, only to be seized by the Luftwaffe after the German invasion of the Netherlands, perhaps in the belief that The bomber will always get through, the British lagged behind in its heavy fighter development. Apart from the Westland Whirlwind and the Welkin, built only in modest numbers, during the Battle of Britain, Bristol Blenheim bombers were fitted, as an interim measure and in utmost secrecy, with radars and ventral gun packs, turning them into the RAFs first night fighters. More successful was the Bristol Beaufighter, which reused major portions of the earlier Beaufort torpedo bomber. Armed with six.303 inch machine guns, four 20 mm cannon and an assortment of bombs and rockets, with the addition of radar, it was one of the Royal Air Forces main night fighters. Similarly, the de Havilland Mosquito fast bomber was later adapted for both day and night fighter use, during the late 1930s, Bell Aircraft of the United States designed the YFM-1 Airacuda bomber destroyer. Very large and heavily armed, the Airacuda was plagued with design flaws, only 13 examples were eventually built, the most successful heavy fighter of the war was the Lockheed P-38 Lightning. It was designed to carry heavy armament at high speed or long range, for a variety of reasons, notably its excellent twin turbochargers and its crew of one, it dramatically outperformed its German and British counterparts. In service it was used as a fighter, following B-17 Flying Fortress raids deep into German-held Europe where it was able to hold its own with the much lighter German fighters. In its escort role, the P-38 was the first Allied fighter over Berlin and it was also highly successful in the Pacific theatre, where its long range proved a pivotal advantage. Expensive to produce and maintain, it was relegated to other roles when the single-engined, but equally long-ranged, P-51D Mustang reached squadrons. It was among the fastest piston-engined aircraft ever built, and heavily armed with four 20mm M2 cannon and four 0.50 inch M2 Browning machine guns, with hard points for bombs or a torpedo. Although Grumman designed and developed the aircraft during World War II and it served in the Korean War and retired in 1954. The last piston-engined heavy fighters to see service were the de Havilland Hornet and its version the Sea Hornet

4.
Aerial reconnaissance
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Aerial reconnaissance is reconnaissance for a military or strategic purpose that is conducted using reconnaissance aircraft. This role can fulfil a variety of requirements, including the collection of intelligence, observation of enemy maneuvers. The balloon found its first use in the 1794 conflict with Austria, moreover, the presence of the balloon had a demoralizing effect on the Austrian troops which improved the likelihood of victory for the French troops. After the invention of photography, primitive aerial photographs were made of the ground from manned and unmanned balloons, starting in the 1860s, an example was Arthur Batuts kite-borne camera photographs of Labruguière starting from 1889. In the early 20th century, Julius Neubronner experimented with pigeon photography, the pigeons carried small cameras with timers. Ludwig Rahrmann in 1891 patented a means of attaching a camera to a large calibre artillery projectile or rocket, Alfred Nobel in 1896 had already built the first rocket carrying a camera, which took photographs of the Swedish landscape during its flights. The first use of airplanes in combat missions was by the Italian Air Force during the Italo-Turkish War of 1911-1912, on 23 October 1911, an Italian pilot, Capt. The use of aerial photography rapidly matured during the First World War, as used for reconnaissance purposes were outfitted with cameras to record enemy movements. At the start of the conflict, the usefulness of aerial photography was not fully appreciated, frederick Charles Victor Laws started experiments in aerial photography in 1912 with No.1 Squadron RAF using the British dirigible Beta. The dirigibles were eventually allocated to the Royal Navy, so Laws formed the first aerial unit of fixed-wing aircraft. Germany was one of the first countries to adopt the use of a camera for aerial reconnaissance, opting for a Görz, French Military Aviation began the war with several squadrons of Bleriot observation planes, equipped with cameras for reconnaissance. The French Army developed procedures for getting prints into the hands of field commanders in record time, the camera was inserted into the floor of the aircraft and could be triggered by the pilot at intervals. In 1916, the Austro-Hungarian Empire made vertical camera axis aerial photos above Italy for map-making. In January 1918, General Allenby used five Australian pilots from No.1 Squadron AFC to photograph a 624 square miles area in Palestine as an aid to correcting and improving maps of the Turkish front and this was a pioneering use of aerial photography as an aid for cartography. Beginning 5 January, they flew with an escort to ward off enemy fighters. In 1928, the RAF developed a heating system for the aerial camera. This allowed reconnaissance aircraft to take pictures from very high altitudes without the camera parts freezing, although this seems obvious now, with modern reconnaissance tasks performed by fast, high flying aircraft, at the time it was radical thinking. They proposed the use of Spitfires with their armament and radios removed and replaced with extra fuel and this led to the development of the Spitfire PR variants

5.
Junkers
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Junkers Flugzeug- und Motorenwerke AG, more commonly Junkers, was a major German aircraft and aircraft engine manufacturer. It produced some of the worlds most innovative and best-known airplanes over the course of its fifty-plus year history in Dessau and it was founded there in 1895 by Hugo Junkers, initially manufacturing boilers and radiators. During World War I, and following the war, the company famous for its pioneering all-metal aircraft. The history of Junkers aircraft production begins with the Junkers J1 mid-wing monoplane, research for this aircraft began in 1914 and was interrupted by the start of the First World War. The prototype aircraft, named the Blechesel, was completed in very late 1915 after the outbreak of the war and this aircraft is significant in that it was the first flyable aircraft to utilize an all-metal total structural design. Contemporary aircraft were built around wooden frames constructed in a fashion, reinforced with wires. The J1 was a design, using steel ribs. IdFlieg, in charge of aircraft evaluation, was unconvinced of the layout of these designs. Junkers took this opportunity to all the flying surfaces of the J4 aircraft of corrugated duralumin in order to lower weight. The J4 became Junkers first design to production, with orders totalling 283. Junkers continued to believe in the monoplane layout constructed entirely in metal, the J8 was the first cantilever monoplane design, and looked extremely modern when compared to contemporary wire-braced biplane designs. The corrugated duralumin wing and fuselage skin introduced in the J-series became a trademark of Junkers aircraft built in the 1920s and 30s, development continued during the course of World War I, including a growing partnership with Fokker, as the Junkers-Fokker Aktiengesellschaft. Several Junkers designs were licensed to Fokker during this period, the Great War ended with German Navy trials of the model J11, which was an all-metal floatplane prototype. In the immediate post-war era, Junkers used their J8 layout as the basis for the F-13, first flown on 25 June 1919 and this four passenger monoplane was the worlds first all-metal airliner. The Treaty of Versailles signed only days after the F-13 flew, after that span of time only the design of civilian aircraft was permitted to Germany.24 and three-engined G.31. Neither aircraft was a commercial success, the W-33/W-34 series also set multiple aviation firsts including records for flight duration, flight distance, altitude, rocket assisted take-off and inflight refueling between 1926 and 1930. Junkers produced a study in 1924 for a visit to the United States. The study outlined a four-engined 80-passenger plane, incorporating a forward wing, as well as a main wing

6.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks

7.
Luftwaffe
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The Luftwaffe was the aerial warfare branch of the combined German Wehrmacht military forces during World War II. During the interwar period, German pilots were trained secretly in violation of the treaty at Lipetsk Air Base, with the rise of the Nazi Party and the repudiation of the Versailles Treaty, the Luftwaffe was officially established on 26 February 1935. The Condor Legion, a Luftwaffe detachment sent to aid Nationalist forces in the Spanish Civil War, provided the force with a testing ground for new doctrines. By the summer of 1939, the Luftwaffe had twenty-eight Geschwaders, during World War II, German pilots claimed roughly 70,000 aerial victories, while over 75,000 Luftwaffe aircraft were destroyed or significantly damaged. Of these, nearly 40,000 were lost entirely, the Luftwaffe proved instrumental in the German victories across Poland and Western Europe in 1939 and 1940. From 1942, Allied bombing campaigns gradually destroyed the Luftwaffes fighter arm, in addition to its service in the West, the Luftwaffe operated over the Soviet Union, North Africa and Southern Europe. In January 1945, during the stages of the Battle of the Bulge, the Luftwaffe made a last-ditch effort to win air superiority. After the defeat of Germany, the Luftwaffe was disbanded in 1946, the Luftwaffe had only two commanders-in-chief throughout its history, Hermann Göring and later Generalfeldmarschall Robert Ritter von Greim. Throughout the war, the force was responsible for war crimes, one of the forerunners of the Luftwaffe, the Imperial German Army Air Service, was founded in 1910 with the name Die Fliegertruppen des deutschen Kaiserreiches, most often shortened to Fliegertruppe. It was renamed Luftstreitkräfte on 8 October 1916, after the defeat of Germany, the service was dissolved on 8 May 1920 under the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles, which also mandated the destruction of all German military aircraft. Since the Treaty of Versailles forbade Germany to have an air force, to train its pilots on the latest combat aircraft, Germany solicited the help of its future enemy, the Soviet Union, which was also isolated in Europe. This base was known as 4th squadron of the 40th wing of the Red Army. Hundreds of Luftwaffe pilots and technical personnel visited, studied and were trained at Soviet air force schools in locations in Central Russia. The first steps towards the Luftwaffes formation were undertaken just months after Adolf Hitler came to power, in April 1933 the Reichsluftfahrtministerium was established. Görings control over all aspects of aviation became absolute, on 25 March 1933 the Deutschen Luftsportverband absorbed all private and national organizations, while retaining its sports title. On 15 May 1933, all military organizations in the RLM were merged, forming the Luftwaffe. The |Nationalsozialistisches Fliegerkorps was formed in 1937 to give pre-military flying training to male youths, military-age members of the NSFK were drafted to the Luftwaffe. As all such prior NSFK members were also Nazi Party members, the absence of Göring in planning and production matters was fortunate

8.
Nazi Germany
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Nazi Germany is the common English name for the period in German history from 1933 to 1945, when Germany was governed by a dictatorship under the control of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Under Hitlers rule, Germany was transformed into a fascist state in which the Nazi Party took totalitarian control over all aspects of life. The official name of the state was Deutsches Reich from 1933 to 1943, the period is also known under the names the Third Reich and the National Socialist Period. The Nazi regime came to an end after the Allied Powers defeated Germany in May 1945, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by the President of the Weimar Republic Paul von Hindenburg on 30 January 1933. The Nazi Party then began to eliminate all opposition and consolidate its power. Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934, and Hitler became dictator of Germany by merging the powers and offices of the Chancellery, a national referendum held 19 August 1934 confirmed Hitler as sole Führer of Germany. All power was centralised in Hitlers person, and his word became above all laws, the government was not a coordinated, co-operating body, but a collection of factions struggling for power and Hitlers favour. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending, extensive public works were undertaken, including the construction of Autobahnen. The return to economic stability boosted the regimes popularity, racism, especially antisemitism, was a central feature of the regime. The Germanic peoples were considered by the Nazis to be the purest branch of the Aryan race, millions of Jews and other peoples deemed undesirable by the state were murdered in the Holocaust. Opposition to Hitlers rule was ruthlessly suppressed, members of the liberal, socialist, and communist opposition were killed, imprisoned, or exiled. The Christian churches were also oppressed, with many leaders imprisoned, education focused on racial biology, population policy, and fitness for military service. Career and educational opportunities for women were curtailed, recreation and tourism were organised via the Strength Through Joy program, and the 1936 Summer Olympics showcased the Third Reich on the international stage. Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels made effective use of film, mass rallies, the government controlled artistic expression, promoting specific art forms and banning or discouraging others. Beginning in the late 1930s, Nazi Germany made increasingly aggressive territorial demands and it seized Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939. Hitler made a pact with Joseph Stalin and invaded Poland in September 1939. In alliance with Italy and smaller Axis powers, Germany conquered most of Europe by 1940, reichskommissariats took control of conquered areas, and a German administration was established in what was left of Poland. Jews and others deemed undesirable were imprisoned, murdered in Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps, following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the tide gradually turned against the Nazis, who suffered major military defeats in 1943

9.
Multirole combat aircraft
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A multirole combat aircraft is a jet-powered combat aircraft intended to perform different roles in combat. The main motivation for developing multirole aircraft is cost reduction in using a common airframe, more roles can be added, such as aerial reconnaissance, forward air control, and electronic-warfare aircraft. Attack missions include the air interdiction, suppression of enemy air defense. Multirole has also applied to one aircraft with both major roles, a primary air-to-air combat role, and a secondary role like air-to-surface attack. Some aircraft are called swing-role, to emphasize the ability of a role change, either at short notice. According to the Military Dictionary, the ability to employ a multi-role aircraft for multiple purposes during the same mission, according to BAE Systems, an aircraft that can accomplish both air-to-air and air-to-surface roles on the same mission and swing between these roles instantly offers true flexibility. This reduces cost, increases effectiveness and enhances interoperability with allied air forces, capability also offers considerable cost-of-ownership benefits to and operational commanders. Although the term multirole aircraft may be novel, certain airframes in history have proven versatile to multiple roles. The USAF F-4 Phantom II built by McDonnell-Douglas also fits the definition of an aircraft in its various configurations of the basic airframe design. The various F-4 Phantom II configurations were used in air, fighter bomber, reconnaissance. The design was aimed to replace a multitude of different types in the air forces. The project produced the Panavia Tornado, which used the basic design to undertake a variety of roles. Air superiority fighter Tactical bomber Interceptor aircraft Interdictor Fighter-bomber Attack aircraft Strike fighter Lead-in fighter trainer

10.
Bomber
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A bomber is a combat aircraft designed to attack ground and sea targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry, firing torpedoes or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. In 1912, during the First Balkan War, Bulgarian Air Force pilot Christo Toprakchiev suggested the use of aircraft to drop bombs on Turkish positions, captain Simeon Petrov developed the idea and created several prototypes by adapting different types of grenades and increasing their payload. This is deemed to be the first use of an aircraft as a bomber, the first heavier-than-air aircraft purposely designed for bombing were the Italian Caproni Ca 30 and British Bristol T. B.8, both of 1913. The Bristol T. B.8 was an early British single engined biplane built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company, under the command of Charles Rumney Samson, a bombing attack on German gun batteries at Middelkerke, Belgium was executed on 25 November 1914. The dirigible, or airship, was developed in the early 20th century, early airships were prone to disaster, but slowly the airship became more dependable, with a more rigid structure and stronger skin. Prior to the outbreak of war, Zeppelins, a larger and these were the first long range, strategic bombers. Although the German air arm was strong, with a total of 123 airships by the end of the war, they were vulnerable to attack and engine failure, German airships inflicted little damage on all 51 raids, with 557 Britons killed and 1,358 injured. The German Navy lost 53 of its 73 airships, and the German Army lost 26 of its 50 ships, the Caproni Ca 30 was built by Gianni Caproni in Italy. It was a biplane with three 67 kW Gnome rotary engines and first flew in October 1914. Test flights revealed power to be insufficient and the engine layout unworkable, the improved design was bought by the Italian Army and it was delivered in quantity from August 1915. Bombing raids and interdiction operations were carried out by French. Sustained attacks with a view to interrupting the enemys railway communications, in conjunction with the main operations of the Allied Armies. The most important bombers used in World War I were the French Breguet 14, British de Havilland DH-4, German Albatros C. III, the Russian Sikorsky Ilya Muromets, was the first four-engine bomber to equip a dedicated strategic bombing unit during World War I. This heavy bomber was unrivaled in the stages of the war. With engine power as a limitation, combined with the desire for accuracy and other operational factors. By the start of the war included, dive bomber — specially strengthened for vertical diving attacks for greater accuracy. Light bomber, medium bomber and heavy bomber — subjective definitions based on size, torpedo bomber — specialized aircraft armed with torpedoes. Ground attack aircraft — aircraft used against targets on a such as troop or tank concentrations

A bombsight is a device used by military aircraft to accurately drop bombs. Bombsights are a feature of combat aircraft …

An early bombsight, 1910s.

The way the line of bombs falling from this B-26 goes toward the rear is due to drag. The aircraft's engines keep it moving forward at a constant speed, while the bombs slow down. From the bomber's perspective, the bombs trail behind the aircraft.

The CSBS Mk. IA, the first widely produced vector bombsight. The drift wires are visible on the right, the windage calculator on the left, and the altitude scale in the middle (vertical). The actual sights are the white rings near the top of the altitude slider and while dots mid-way along the drift wires. The drift wires are normally taut, this example is almost a century old.

The Norden M-1 is the canonical tachometric bombsight. The bombsight proper is at the top of the image, mounted on top of the autopilot system at the bottom. The bombsight is slightly rotated to the right; in action the autopilot would turn the aircraft to reduce this angle back to zero.